ITEP – Page 74 – Informing tax policy debate nationwide

report February 18, 2020
Expanding State EITCs: Age Enhancements and a Credit Increase for Workers without Children in the Home

For 45 years, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has benefited low- and moderate-income workers. Yet, throughout its history, the EITC has provided little or no benefit to workers without children in the home—a group that includes noncustodial parents whose children live the majority of the year with another parent.
blog February 13, 2020
State Rundown 2/13: What’s Trendy in State Tax Debates This Year

We wrote earlier this week about Trends We’re Watching in 2020, and this week’s Rundown includes news on several of those trends. Maine lawmakers are considering a refundable credit for caregivers. Efforts to tax high-income households made news in Maryland, Oregon, and Washington. Grocery taxes are receiving scrutiny in Alabama, Idaho, and Tennessee. Tax cuts or shifts are being discussed in Arizona, Nebraska, and West Virginia. And Arizona, Maryland, and Nevada continue to seek funding solutions for K-12 education as Alaska and Virginia do the same for transportation infrastructure.
blog February 12, 2020
2021 Trump Budget Continues 40-Year Trickle-Down Economic Agenda

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may as well have been called the Promise for Austerity Later Act.
February 12, 2020
ITEP Testimony In Support of H.B. 222 Income Tax Rates – Capital Gains Income & H.B. 256 Maryland Estate Tax – Unified Credit
Read as PDF Testimony of Kamolika Das, State Policy Analyst, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Submitted to: Ways and Means Committee, Maryland General Assembly…
blog February 12, 2020
Hearing Witness: Trump Administration Giving Tax Breaks Not Allowed by Law

The Treasury Department, tasked with issuing regulations to implement the hastily drafted Trump-GOP tax law, is concocting new tax breaks that are not provided in the law. This is the short version of what we learned while watching Tuesday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing on “The Disappearing Corporate Income Tax.”
blog February 12, 2020
Trends We’re Watching in 2020

State lawmakers have plenty to keep them busy on the tax policy front in 2020. Encouraging trends we’re watching this year include opportunities to enact and enhance refundable tax credits and increase the tax contributions of high-income households, each of which would improve tax equity and help to reduce income inequality.
blog February 11, 2020
Why Today’s Congressional Hearing on “The Disappearing Corporate Income Tax” Is Imperative
The United States is collecting a historically low level of tax revenue from corporations. In 2018, corporate tax revenue as a share of gross domestic…
blog February 10, 2020
President Trump’s 2021 Budget: Promises Made, Promises Broken

President Trump has kept only one of his promises–his pledge to lower taxes for corporations and their investors.

The budget plan he released today again breaks his promise to reject cuts in Medicaid that would affect millions of people. His budget once again fails to eliminate the deficit, much the less the national debt, during his presidency as he promised. It cuts trillions from safety net programs and student aid programs despite his pledge to stand for forgotten Americans.
blog February 5, 2020
States Can Make Their Tax Systems Less Regressive by Reforming or Repealing Itemized Deductions

Itemized deductions are problematic tax subsidies that need to close. The mortgage interest deduction, for instance, is often lauded as a way to help middle-class families afford homes and charitable deductions are touted as incentivizing gifts to charitable organizations. But the dirty little secret is that itemized deductions primarily benefit higher-income households while largely failing to achieve their purported goals.
report February 5, 2020
State Itemized Deductions: Surveying the Landscape, Exploring Reforms

State itemized deductions are generally patterned after federal law, though nearly every state makes significant changes to the menu of deductions available or the extent to which those deductions are allowed. This report summarizes the key details of each state’s itemized deduction policies and discusses various options for reforming those deductions with a focus on lessening their regressive impact and reducing their cost to state budgets.